Generation Eh?

[penfield]

"While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
- Eugene Debs (American union leader and five-time socialist candidate for President of the United States)


Yesterday and today I attended the Youth Entitlement Summit (YES) here in Washington D.C. The event is a small convention of "young thought leaders," -- individuals under 30 whose obnoxiously flush résumés make them the National Honor Society members of postgraduate youth -- whose assigned task was to engage policy experts in the field of entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) and develop reform principles for addressing budget shortfalls in an equitable manner.

It was more exciting than it sounds. Sort of. I mean, it was like Schindler's List in that it effectively dramatized a situation so depressing that, if you ever really thought about it, it would make you want to throw up.

In the ensuing discussions about demography, participants kept drawing distinctions between the "Baby Boomers", "Generation X" and "Generation Y." Baby Boomers were born between the end of World War II (about 1946) and the early 1960s; Generation X refers to those born between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s; "Generation Y" (a.k.a. "Millenials") represents those born between the early 1980s and the mid-90s. These timelines are rough approximations -- there does not appear to be any singluar authority on the subject and they may have been developed through acclamation or aggregation.

According to this filing system, I -- born in 1976 -- am a member of Generation X, though I am uncomfortably close to the cusp. Before I knew the boundaries, I assumed that I had dual citizenship between Gen X and Gen Y. (I never voluntarily identified myself as either, although I guess I preferred to think of myself as Generation Y for the sole reason that it made for a more interesting pun, i.e. Generation "Ex" vs. Generation "Why?") But I never thought of myself as either one: I'm still not sure what signifies Gen Y membership (a Facebook page?) but I am certainly not a grunge-rocking, reality-biting, job-slacking X'er.

Mostly I chafed against the being labeled anything at all. Like most people, I resent the imposition of stamps like "Generation X" because they are at best minimally useful for illuminating who I am as a person; at worst, they are outright misleading. As a general rule, lumping large groups of people together for any reason other than top-level macroanalysis or anecdotal triviality is intellectually useless. In fact, it's less than useless -- it's distracting. It is the demographic equivalent of the daily horoscope.

Labels are intended to group people together for easy identification, but most often they are used as blunt instruments for dividing people. If you must label me something, just tell me I'm good.

Comments

[mearth.livejournal.com]

Yeah... because if there's anything that kids today need more of, it's entitlement.

[enchanted-pants.livejournal.com]

Well, the term "entitlement" is more or less a wonky term, here. It's referring to the federal entitlement programs, not the idea that America's youth are owed anything. Actually, it was pretty admirable that the Young Leaders were contemplative enough to recognize that sacrifices would be necessary across the board just to sustain the program past insolvency. There was never an indication that the delegates were looking out for themselves.

That said, they are all ridiculously smart and successful and I hate them.

[(Anonymous)]

Fine, smarty-pants :)

I didn't actually know what that term referred to here, so I covered my ignorance by condescending to people who are better than me. It's the American Way. Suck on that, Young Leaders. Also, good for you. But mostly, suck on it.

[mearth.livejournal.com]

That was me, duh.